Here is a video Michael made over the course of our trip…

We woke up early on the train to go have breakfast in the dining car…

Michael and I stepped off the train in Gallup…

Soon after lunch in the dining car, we arrived into Lamy, just about on time…

Now, we just had the drive home. Except for the fact that our car would not start. Yup, here we were in the metropolis of Lamy, New Mexico, where there is NOT EVEN CELL PHONE SERVICE, with a car that would not start.

Turns out, it was the battery and another passenger waiting to get on the next train was very helpful and gave us a jump start. We decided to play it safe and we did not turn the car off again until we got home. We made it.

That is all the trip reports for this year. Thanks for following along. I might have one more post with a video Michael made so stay tuned for that.

Until next time…

Today was pretty simple. Got up, hotel shuttle to the Santa Fe depot in San Diego…

Took a Surfliner train to Los Angeles…

Waited for a couple of hours in LA and then boarded our final train, #4 Southwest Chief…

We just had dinner and are now settling down for the night. This trip is quickly coming to an end.

Well, this was a pretty slow day vacation wise. We started by saying goodbye to our view…

We went to the airport, returned the rental, and boarded our Hawaiian Airlines flight back to the mainland…

Nice parting picture of the island…

And Michael caught be dancing to some techno music on the plane..

Now we are in a hotel in San Diego for the night. We will board our first train to Los Angeles at noon tomorrow.

We did not have a lot planned for today. We started the day going to Manoa Falls.

The hike was about 30 minutes each way and was a completely different environment than we had been in so far. It was jungle and while not hot, it was very humid.

We then drove out for a ride on the Oahu Railroad. It took us all the way out to the West coast of Oahu.

After the train, the family went to spend some time at the beach while I hung out at the condo.

After dinner, we walked around Waikiki and bought a couple of souvenirs.

Now we are preparing ourselves to leave tomorrow. Really looking forward to sitting on a plane for 6 hours (not).

We slept in a little later this morning. Then we stopped by the Kamehameha Statue that they show in Hawaii 5-0 all the time…

Then we headed all the way to the opposite side of Oahu to the town of Laie. We first stopped of at Lanie Point…

After a quick lunch, we drove by the local Morman temple…

The rest of the day was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center…

Canoe ride…

Michael just had to have a fresh coconut…

Stephen found something he likes to do…

Here is a pic between the luau and the big show at the end of the day…

It was a long day and was an hour long drive back so it is late. Going to bed.

We started the day going to Diamond Head crater. Here is where we started…

Then after some steep trails, some stairs, more trails, more stairs, a tunnel that I am sure did not have enough air in it, some more trails, some more stairs, then more stairs, then more stairs, we reached the top rim…

For some reason, the trip back down went a lot quicker. After returning to our car, we drove to the Punchbowl National Cemetery…

Then we went for a drive around to the north shore. On the way we stopped at a place called the spitting cave.

We stopped for lunch and then drove back on the H3 interstate. It was incredibly beautiful.

Went back the condo. Vicky, Stephen and Michael went to the beach…

Not being a beach person, I went right behind the beach to the Army Museum…

When I came back, found Michael and Stephen on this…

We then went back to the condo for dinner. Then back to the beach for the Hilton fireworks…

Now we are back at the condo settling in for the night. Until tomorrow.

The day started early cause it would take all day to see everything at Pearl Harbor…

We started with a great tour of the USS Missouri…

The spot where the surrender was signed…

We also visited the USS Bowfin submarine…

And the Pacific Aviation Museum…

And the USS Arizona memorial. Here we are on the boat…

Here are four Chinese warships that were docked in Pearl. We were told they were unexpected. We also spoke with a Chinese naval officer on the Missouri…

After a run by the grocery store for dinner, we were back to the condo for dinner. After, we decided to walk around the neighborhood of Waikiki..

And Michael and Vicky partook of a local favorite…

We are now pretty tired so we are turning in to get energy for tomorrow. Until then.

We started the morning with breakfast at the hotel in San Diego…

Then we took the shuttle to the dreaded airport to get an airplane involved in this trip…

Pretty soon we were on board and away we went…

After a long 5 hours, we caught our first glimpse of where we were headed…

After a VERY long wait at the car rental place, we went straight to our condo rental. Nice view…

After running to the store to get some food and supplies, we walked to the beach for a look…

Now, it is to bed early. The time change is really making us tired. Big day tomorrow.

We have just landed on Oahu!

Our train arrived into Los Angeles Union Station only about 45 minutes late. It allowed us to run inside and spend a few minutes in the lounge. After only about 30 minutes, our next train was arriving and we were boarding the Surfliner train to San Diego. No sleepers on this train, but we were in business class.

This train ran right on time and we arrived into San Diego at 12:40.

After gathering our checked bags, we called our hotel for a shuttle to pick us up.

Stephen’s ear was hurting him pretty bad, so we decided to go get it looked at. Stephen and I took an Uber over to an Urgent Care place. Turns out he has an inner ear infection. We got a prescription from the pharmacy and Ubered back to the hotel. (Uber was awesome!)

Then we all walked down to the pier and ate dinner at Anthony’s. Then back to hotel to chill for a bit.

Vicky and I had been keeping a secret from the boys as to an activity we had planned for tonight. We finally let them in. We were going to an escape room that was right around the corner from our hotel. It was VERY cool. It was called Enigma HQ. We had a blast. We also made it out with 6:04 on the clock (with a few helpful hints along the way).

We will begin early tomorrow morning, but tomorrow we will be in Hawaii. Keep in mind that Hawaii is 5 hours behind Central Time Zone so most posts will probably not come till late.

Until tomorrow.

We started the morning by dropping our little Baxter off at the Moore’s house. We have been telling him he was going to summer camp, so if you see him, make sure you don’t say anything else.

We then headed out for Lamy, New Mexico. Took us about four hours to get there. We arrived about two hours before departure.

For once, our train was practically on time arriving only about 20 minutes late. We boarded into our bedrooms. We always get the smallest rooms called roomettes, but for this trip because of some technicalities with our reward points, we got two of the large bedrooms instead. They are much larger and have restrooms in the rooms.

Soon after boarding, the train makes an extended stop in Albuquerque. So we were able to get off and walk around a bit. This is how Albuquerque says “Do not sit on the wall.”

After dinner of steak for all of us, we made a stop in Gallop where we stepped off for a few minutes.

We turned in pretty soon after since we were still operating on central time. Also, since breakfast would be served at 5am.

We were able to drag ourselves to the dining car at 5 for breakfast.

Now we are back in our rooms laying down. We are running a couple hours late but may still be able to be on our scheduled connecting train to San Diego. We shall see.

(I am going to try and post this using Word, we shall see how it goes!)

We have boarded our train and are on the way to Los Angeles. Hopefully will be able to make a full post tonight from the train. 

https://instagram.com/p/BHdMsfuAnvy/

Our yearly family vacation is upon us again. This year, it is a little bigger (i.e. more expensive) than normal since this is Stephen’s last trip ever with us! Okay, maybe not his last trip, but he did just graduate high school so this is his senior trip. So we are Hawaii bound!

As is normal for us, we will be taking the train. Yes, we are taking the train to Hawaii. At least for part of the trip, anyway. An airplane will also be somewhat involved in the trip as well. Here is our schedule…

• Monday, July 4th – Drive from Amarillo to Lamy, New Mexico and board Amtrak’s train #3, the Southwest Chief
• Tuesday, July 5th – Arrive at Los Angeles Union Station and change trains to Amtrak’s Surfliner train. Arrive by train into San Diego where we will spend the night
• Wednesday, July 6th – Board our Hawaiian Airlines flight from San Diego to Honolulu and arrive in Hawaii
• Thursday, July 7th through Sunday, July 10th – Explore the island of Oahu
• Monday, July 11th – Fly back to San Diego and spend the night
• Tuesday, July 12th – Board Amtrak’s Surfliner back to Los Angeles where we will change trains to the #4 Southwest Chief
• Wednesday, July 13th – Arrive back into Lamy and drive back to Amarillo

This could be our “once-in-a-lifetime” trip to Hawaii. Who knows if we will ever get to go back so we plan on really taking it in. Would like to thank our friend James for once again house sitting for us, the Moore family for caring for sweet Baxter and all those checking in on and serving Vicky’s dad.

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